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“The Gift of Discernment: The Fox and the Hen”
Luke 13:31-35
A Sermon preached by The Rev. Douglas M. Donley
Today, we are addressing the gift of
discernment. This is the capacity to
decide between one thing or another. It is how we make the big and not so big
decisions in our lives. We make choices every day. We have the capacity to make some really good
choices and some really bad choices.
That’s the bummer about free will.
Good choices and bad choices abound.
But how do you know the right choice? That’s what I want to look at today.
First of all, the best way to make a
good choice is if our mind is clear.
It’s real hard to make good choices if we are distracted. That’s why accidents happen while people are
talking on their cell phones. I heard on
NPR yesterday that human beings are not hard wired to multi-task. Of course, I heard this while I was driving
and listening to the radio. We’re wired
instead to focus on one thing at a time. And yet we multi-task and have the illusion of
getting things done. We may get good
quantity in terms of tasks accomplished, but the quality suffers.
I know when I get angry,
I don’t make the best decisions. This
shadow-side emerges and demonic things start to inhabit me and spill out onto
those I love. Anger is not a good place
for me to make my wisest decisions.
Another thing that can mar good
decision-making is peer pressure. We
want to be liked. We want to be accepted
as one of the gang. But if peers are
pressuring us, then there is something inside that is resisting. It’s important to pay attention to that
voice, too.
Then there’s God. Well, God can get downright annoying in the
divine persistence department. When
something will not let you go, chances are God is there speaking inside of you,
urging you toward a more hopeful place—even if, or especially if it scares the
heck out of you.
Today’s scripture is about
discernment. It is particularly about
the nature of God and the nature of those who try to act as though they are
God.
The scripture gives us two
metaphors, which will help us with our discernment process. The fox and the hen.
Marcus Borg reminds us that the
Bible is chock full of metaphors. He
goes so far as to say that we have metaphorized our
history. The problem comes when we try
to literalize our metaphors. I’m not
going to try to do that today. What I
want to do is unpack a few key Biblical metaphors and see if it gives us any
insight into the way we live our lives and make our decisions.
The Bible was written at a time and
place where people knew livestock intimately.
They were all around. There was
no escaping the herds of sheep. Jesus
calls us sheep. Friends who have been to
Everyone knew about foxes as well as
sheep. Foxes were the ones you
avoided. Foxes were the ones who came
like thieves in the night to kill the sheep.
Jesus was talking about how narrow
the door to the reign of God is as we enter today’s scripture. He had just finished saying how the first
will be last and the last will be first.
That was when some of the Pharisees confronted Jesus and said:
“Get away from here, don’t come to
To the Pharisees, Jesus says, “You
go tell that fox Herod that I am casting out demons and doing it on the Sabbath
and that I am going to
Think of what Jesus meant when he called Herod a fox. A fox is a small furry predatory animal that
has a reputation for outsmarting its prey, for making up in sinister cunning
what it lacks in size.
One of our kids’ favorite books was The
Gingerbread Boy. In it, the fox
outsmarts the gingerbread boy and eventually eats him, because a fox is always
a fox.
Jesus called Herod a fox. This
was a very political statement on Jesus’ part.
Folks don’t often think of Jesus as a very political person, but he
called Herod a fox and then defied him outright. As
Paul said in Romans 13, Jesus was subject to governing authorities, but not
defined by them. We are followers of
Jesus, the lamb, the shepherd. One of
the reasons we don’t have a flag here in the worship space is to keep us
mindful that we follow the shepherd, not the nation, the lamb, not the
beast.
King Herod, the fox, if he wanted to find Jesus, the lamb, would find
him in
Then, Jesus did something which we don’t often see prophets do after
they condemn others. Jesus wept. He wept for the great city of
Do you hear the metaphor of God in Jesus’ lament? God is a mother hen. God is the one who gathers her chicks around
and protects them from the predators.
Jesus was identifying God with a mother hen, not with a fox. A mother hen is fruitful and multiplies. She gives eggs. She has many chicks who
pretty quickly bear more chicks. The
foxes can’t even keep up with them. Enough
mother hens can peck at foxes and keep the chicks safe. A mother hen is a force to be reckoned
with.
Mother hens are an antidote to the dominant foxy talk that ‘might makes right, that to get ahead you must garnish more power
and control. That money and power and
fame and looking out for number one is the way of the world. If the last are last, it’s their
own fault. And if the first are
first it is because they are blessed by God and country. We must continue to kill the prophets of God
who might want to lead you astray,’ says the fox who is outsmarting many of the
people of
Decisions are made in office buildings of the cities, decisions
motivated by profit, preference and power, determining the destinies of people
who have no profit and no power.
Cities are places that need the church.
Churches are outposts of truth-telling—chicken coops of security and
safety where people garner strength for the journey ahead.
“
Our job is to discern between the foxes and the hens in our world.
The hen’s safe wings are here in the church where we nurture the people
of God so that God’s message of justice and hope remains alive. Like the hen we provide asylum, refuge from
the powers and the rules of the foxes of this world. We nurture God’s message of justice, mercy
and hope. The Bible uses these symbols
to tell us what is going on, and if any of you have ears, as it says in
Revelation, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
Martin Luther King once said, “You have not lived until you have found
something that you are willing to die for.”
Discerning that s what life is about. But we’re more likely to be like the disciples
who said, “sure, we’ll follow you, but when the going
gets tough, we’re out of here.”
No, to be true disciples, true sheep of God’s flock, truly led by the
good shepherd, we must be willing to give up our lives for our friends, for
there is no greater love than this. I
did not say give up our lives for whatever cause the
fox tells us to, but on behalf of the cause which Christ, the shepherd who will
supply our needs calls us.
Last night, I attended a reception honoring the next wave of Soulforce Equality riders. This week, fifty-two young
adults will leave in two buses to spread the word of welcome to the LGBT
communities on Christian college campuses.
They will peacefully and nonviolently engage in dialogue and put a face
upon the LGBT community. They are being
like hens who gather the chicks under their wings and
remind the foxes that there is another potent reality out there that deserves
attention and respect.
There are metaphors in the Bible which tell us about our lives here on
earth and our hope.
Remember, that the first shall be last.
And even though we may feel as though we are alone and being controlled
by the many-headed fox , our calling is to be faithful
and to put our trust in the hen, who has promised not to leave us comfortless.
Now, all of this fox and hen stuff can get a bit gamey, I know. But we must work to discern between them. Think about these metaphors for the world and
then think about the decisions you might have to make. A fox is predatory. A hen is protecting. Are
the decisions you are making ones that are predatory or are they protecting in
nature?
Benjamin Franklin had it right, I think when
he was arguing for the turkey as the symbol for our nation instead of the
eagle. He argued for the turkey because
the turkey is not a predator, like the eagle.
It seeks to bring more into the fold, not devouring one’s enemies.
So think about who we follow. Is
it the hens of this world, or is it the foxes?
Remember, if you can distinguish between a fox and a hen, then you have
the gift of discernment. You have all
the keys you need to make the decisions that really matter. And that, my friends is very good news to all
of us.
Sometimes we can’t make decisions on our own. We need others to help us discern what is
right and wrong for us. I know people
who, when faced with a hug decision, have gathered their close friends around
them and formed a clarity circle. This
circle can help people to pay attention to the Spirit of God without
distraction. The trusted friends tell the
person the truth as they see it and the person absorbs the information and
listens to the voice of God.
We don’t make most of our decisions in a vacuum. In
church, we rely on a trusted community of people who see the difference between
the foxes and the hens of this world. We
have the gift of discernment, if we just claim it. We claim it by limiting our distractions and
letting the spirit of God move in our being.
Of course, it helps to know the difference between a fox and a hen.